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Sonic Fabric Bag Made From Recycled Audio Tape Plays Music on Demand

For over a decade, interdisciplinary artist Alyce Santoro has spun recycled cassette tape into “audible textiles” that play back under a tape head. Woven on antique looms in a family-run textile mill in New England, her Sonic Fabric has graced everything from neckties to red-carpet-ready bustiers. Now, for a limited time, Santoro is offering purses made from sound collages based on life in New York City—a way to raise money for a new batch of Sonic Fabric she plans to produce with community weavers in Mexico.

AUDIO POCKETBOOK

Lined with brightly colored raw silk, each bag can be purchased for $120 (half-price if you pre-order now) or as a perk when you make a $200 tax-deductible contribution at United States Artists before August 30.

For every $2,000 donation, Santoro will whip up 20 yards of Sonic Fabric with the soundtrack of your choice.

Feeling generous? For every $2,000 donation, Santoro will whip up 20 yards of Sonic Fabric with the soundtrack of your choice. Plus, you’ll be in good company; the City of Culture in Galicia, Spain has commissioned Santoro to create custom yardage using sounds from the capital of Santiago de Compostella. Students at the University of Vigo will fashion the playable fabric into garments in December.

3 thoughts on “Sonic Fabric Bag Made From Recycled Audio Tape Plays Music on Demand”

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!! thank you, ecouterre!! one small correction - there is a plan to weave with community weaves in oaxaca, mexico in the works, but the funds raised from this project are helping to facilitate the commission from the city of culture of galicia. thanks so much again!!

I'm a mexican Industrial Designer and I love this fabrics/project, honestly. It's innovative, fun, propositive, and eco-friendly. CONGRAT'S FOR THAT!! But that thing about producing the fabrics with mexican community weavers 'causes me a trouble. 'Cause this communities have a huge, exquisite and important tradition in weaving and textiles. Mexican indigenous textiles are so rich, that according to an investigation that I did a year ago, can be even read as a masterpiece thorugh a method called "Panofsky". Also, this textile traditions usually come from our prehispanic heritage; when you use these weavers to produce this "modern" textiles and designs, u're pushing them to forget their traditional weaving tecnics and narrative designs (usually the "graphic design part" talks about their cosmology), to learn the modern and more "accepted" ones (in Mexico we still have a lot of discrimination problems, heritage from the Spanish Colony times). Honestly, this is controversial and widely discussed topic in Mexico, that involves designers, antropologysts and sociologists.
I'm sure that your intentions are good, but you should rethink about it.

hello k, thank you for your thoughtful comment. for the mexico project, i am working in close collaboration with mexican artist/fashion designer carla fernandez who has been extremely careful to respect traditional customs - there's a downloadable ebook on her wonderful work here: www (dot) flora2 (dot) com.